Residents who saw their homes and businesses devastated when the River Derwent swamped parts of Ryedale have welcomed plans to protect them from a repeat of the disaster.

ABOVE: Nick Gander, from Yorkshire and Humberside Museum Council, leaving the Beck Isle Museum, Pickering, yesterday on a makeshift bridge.

But the people of Malton, Norton and Old Malton, the areas hardest hit by last year's floods, have called on the Environment Agency to get the proposed flood defences in place as soon as possible.

Of 89 residents questioned - 50 of whom were flood victims - at an exhibition to show the agency's proposals for preventing future floods, 84 per cent backed a £4 million scheme to build a series of flood banks and walls on either side of the Derwent. But 20 per cent felt the agency had not considered all the options.

Howard Keal, chairman of the St Nicholas Street Residents' Association in Norton, told a meeting of the Yorkshire Regional Flood Defence Committee, in York, of the devastation so many residents suffered in the floods and battled with in the aftermath.

He said: "The fact that the committee appreciates the seriousness of the problem is heart-warming.

"But it is disappointing that more than a year on from the floods we are still having to suffer anxieties every time there is a deluge.

"The pace of getting this agreed appears to be very slow and we are anxious for the committee to push this forward as fast as they can and remove the anxiety from residents as soon as possible.

"Only when this moves to a stage where funding is there and those walls are finally in place will we be able to rest easier in our beds."

Committee chairman Tom Collier said: "Floods are a disturbing and traumatising experience and we are aware of how people have suffered. We are progressing as fast as our systems will allow."

Residents had also shown "overwhelming support" for a further exhibition once an outline design of the flood defences had been drawn up.

Construction work could get underway in the 2002/3 financial year and would take several months to complete.

After the meeting, Mr Keal said that while the flood defence scheme was welcomed a pumping station was also needed on to stop repeated serious flooding in the Welham Road area.

Flood defence schemes for the Derwent area include Stamford Bridge, to be built in 2001/2, Pickering in 2002/3 and Sinnington in 2005/6.

Alert as river level rises

Norton braced for more floods

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